The Commentariat -- June 6, 2014

Internal links, photo removed.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama came together with a parade of kings and queens and prime ministers to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing that sent young men storming onto the forbidding beaches of northern France amid a hail of fire in perhaps the greatest invasion in human history":

"... what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa." -- Charles Wilson, GM President & U.S. Secretary of Defense, Eisenhower administration ...

... Hillary Stout, et al., of the New York Times: "General Motors executives let slip for a decade "opportunities ... to rectify a safety problem that was detected even before the first of the cars came on the market, according to an internal investigation of G.M.'s handling of the ignition switch issue. The report, which the company on Thursday turned over to federal regulators and lawmakers, is a tale of nonchalance, ignorance and incompetence with tragic consequences. The 325-page document provides new details to help fill in a chronology of inaction that has been taking shape in investigations by federal regulators, lawmakers and law-enforcement officials." The report is here. ...

... Dominick Rushe of the Guardian: "General Motors' fatal delay in recalling cars with faulty ignition switches was caused by a 'pattern of incompetence and neglect', chief executive Mary Barra said Thursday. Announcing the findings of an internal report, Barra said she had fired 15 people and disciplined another five for the decade-long delay that has been linked to at least 13 fatal crashes and eventually led to the recall of 2.6m Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other models equipped with faulty ignition switches."

Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times: "Sylvia Mathews Burwell sailed to confirmation Thursday as President Obama's next Secretary of Health and Human Services, picking up bipartisan support in the Senate despite Republicans' ongoing opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Twenty-four Republicans joined 52 Democrats and two Independents in backing Burwell...."

Charlie Savage & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "A classified military report detailing the Army's investigation into the disappearance of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in June 2009 says that he had wandered away from assigned areas before -- both at a training range in California and at his remote outpost in Afghanistan -- and then returned, according to people briefed on it. The roughly 35-page report, completed two months after Sergeant Bergdahl left his unit, concludes that he most likely walked away of his own free will from his outpost in the dark of night, and it criticized lax security practices and poor discipline in his unit. But it stops short of concluding that there is solid evidence that Sergeant Bergdahl, then a private, intended to permanently desert." ...

... Kimberly Dozier of the Daily Beast: "The Pentagon rejected the idea of a rescue mission for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl because he was being moved so often by his Taliban captors that U.S. special operators would have had to hit up to a dozen possible hideouts inside Pakistan at once in order to have a chance at rescuing him. That's according to U.S. officials, who also say the Obama administration did not want to risk the political fallout in Pakistan...." ...

... Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "The five senior Taliban leaders released to Qatar after years of detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are subject to strict bans on militant incitement or fundraising that might pose a danger to the United States, according to people familiar with the negotiations that freed American prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl. The Afghans are also under a one-year travel ban insisted upon by Washington despite a Taliban request that the men be allowed to make the hajj, Muslims' annual pilgrimage to nearby Saudi Arabia." ...

... BUT Massimo Calabresi of Time: "The Last Time Qatar Promised To Watch A Gitmo Prisoner, He Walked." ...

... Aryn Baker of Time reports on the Taliban's POV about the exchange. ...

... David Fahrenthold & Jaime Fuller of the Washington Post: Several Congressional conservatives have changed their minds this week about Bowe Bergdahl's retrieval. "First, they demanded that President Obama get Bergdahl back. Then, when the soldier was released, they blasted Obama for giving up too much to get him. Those conservatives have been mocked by Democrats and cable-news talkers, who accuse them of playing politics. 'It is clear they are worried his release could be seen as a victory for President Obama,' Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said on the Senate floor Wednesday." ...

     ... CW: Love this: "Just after Bergdahl's release, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) released a statement that said: 'Our prayers have been answered and we offer our thanks for the perseverance of the family and the many Idahoans who have kept this vigil. We appreciate the men and women who made this release possible.' [Huh. Wonder if President Obama is among those "who made this release possible."] Five days later, Crapo expressed doubts about the exchange, telling a local news outlet: 'I believe that is a problem ... that could potentially result in a problem for our national security.'" ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Earlier [Thursday], three different members of Congress -- two Republicans and a Democrat -- deleted their tweets of support for Bergdahl's release." ...

... Tom Kludt of TPM: "Back in 2009, not long after Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was taken prisoner in Afghanistan, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA) signed onto a letter along with 22 other members of Congress to denounce a Fox News analyst who described the soldier as a deserter. But this week, after President Obama negotiated an exchange to get Bergdahl back, Hunter found himself on Fox News making the same accusations he once found so detestable." ...

... ** New York Times Editors: "The last few days have made clearer than ever that there is no action the Obama administration can take -- not even the release of a possibly troubled American soldier from captivity -- that cannot be used for political purposes by his opponents." Includes great examples of Republican hypocrisy on Bergdahl's release. ...

An OB/Gyn Weighs in on Bergdahl's Medical Condition. Dana Bash of CNN (in a CNN Exclusive!): "Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, who is a also a physician, told CNN he is convinced that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was drugged in the so-called 'proof of life' video shown to senators during a closed briefing Wednesday.... 'Now, his mental health is probably not, and his psychological health, but his physical health is fine,' said Coburn." ...

     ... Digby assesses Dr. Coburn's creds. Hilarious. ...

... CW: Even though David Brooks doesn't write his column's headlines, I felt compelled to read a Brooks column with the title "President Obama Was Right." It turns out I agree with much of Brooks's rationale on the Bergdahl release, except, um, for his central premise: that retrieving Bergdahl was essential to maintaining "national solidarity." In my opinion, the main reason for retrieving Bergdahl, assuming he did desert (and I don't know that he did), was a conservative one: continuity of policy. The U.S. military has long had a policy of "leave no soldier behind." To break that policy, based on unsubstantiated claims by a handful of Bergdahl's fellow soldiers, would be an insupportable breach of precedent. It's D-Day. Maybe conservatives could watch "Saving Private Ryan." ...

     ... UPDATE: William Saletan of Slate has more on the Armed Forces Code of Conduct, published 50 years ago, which guarantees that "the government will use every practical means to contact, support and gain release for you and for all other prisoners of war." Saletan adds, "We can't just say it. We have to mean it, even when it carries a price."

     ... Steve M.: "Brooks ... never acknowledges why the recovery of Bowe Bergdahl is the subject of howling rage. It's his allies. On Fox, on talk radio, in the halls of Congress, they divide America every hour of every day." Also, Steve catches Brooks in a ridiculous falsehood -- Brooks's claim that "the Obama administration can be faulted for not at least trying to use the language of communal solidarity to explain this decision." ...

... AND, for comic relief, Morning Joe & Tuck Chodd get in a shouting match over Bob Bergdahl, Bowe's father. Bill Kristol, BTW, thinks Joe is presidential material.

AP: "An additional 18 veterans in the Phoenix area whose names were kept off an official electronic Veterans Affairs appointment list have died, the agency's acting secretary said Thursday.... Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said he does not know whether the 18 new deaths were related to long waiting times for appointments but said they were in addition to the 17 reported last month by the VA's inspector general. The announcement of the deaths came as senior senators reached agreement Thursday on the framework for a bipartisan bill making it easier for veterans to get health care outside VA hospitals and clinics."

David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "As the intelligence community continues its assessment of the damage caused by Edward Snowden's leaks of secret programs, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says it appears the impact may be less than once feared because 'it doesn't look like he [Snowden] took as much' as first thought. 'We're still investigating, but we think that a lot of what he looked at, he couldn't pull down,' Clapper said in a rare interview at his headquarters Tuesday. 'Some things we thought he got he apparently didn't.' Although somewhat less than expected, the damage is still 'profound,' he said." ...

... Juliette Garfield of the Guardian: "Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile phone groups, has revealed the existence of secret wires that allow government agencies to listen to all conversations on its networks, saying they are widely used in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe and beyond."

AFP: "Hillary Clinton favoured arming Syria's rebels early in the country's civil war but was overruled by Barack Obama, the former secretary of state said in her new memoir, according to CBS News." ...

     ... UPDATE: Here's the CBS News story, which didn't show up on a site search earlier this morning. ...

Tim Egan assesses the Tea Party's "accomplishments": "So, no legislation. A shutdown that cost billions. A near-default that almost threw the United States back into recession. What else? Oh, science denial. Evolution, climate change, medicine -- all a hoax, in one form or another. But the Tea Party does have something to show for its five years of annoyance: Ted Cruz, senator from Texas." ...

... UNLIKE Ted Cruz, Paul Krugman understands the message of "Green Eggs & Ham": "The new carbon policy ... is supposed to be the beginning, not the end, a domino that, once pushed over, should start a chain reaction that leads, finally, to global steps to limit climate change. Do we know that it will work? Of course not. But it's vital that we try."

Beyond the Beltway

Paul Weber & Will Weissert of the AP: "The Texas Republican Party would endorse psychological treatment that seeks to turn gay people straight under a new platform partly aimed at rebuking laws in California and New Jersey that ban so-called 'reparative therapy' on minors. A push to include the new anti-gay language survived a key vote late Thursday in Fort Worth at the Texas Republican Convention where, across the street, tea party star U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz fired up attendees at a rally to defend marriage as between a man and a woman." ...

     ... CW: So it's okay to treat kids who have absolutely nothing wrong with them, but a teenaged girl who is actually but accidentally pregnant -- a well-known medical condition -- is out of luck.

Judicial Activism, Florida-Style. Ralphie Aversa of Yahoo! News: "A Florida judge is stepping down from the bench after a courtroom incident in which he allegedly punched an attorney. Eighteenth Judicial Circuit Chief Judge John M. Harris said in a statement Tuesday that Judge John Murphy 'has agreed to seek anger management counseling and treatment during a temporary leave of absence.' On Monday, video of an altercation between Judge Murphy and Assistant Public Defender Andrew Weinstock went viral online."

Presidential Race 2016

Bruce Schreiner of the AP: "Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that a state law preventing candidates from having their names appear more than once on the ballot won't deter him from staging dual campaigns for Senate re-election and president -- if he decides to run for the White House in 2016.... Kentucky lawmakers considered legislation this year that would have relieved Paul from the potential quandary. The GOP-led state Senate passed a bill that would have revised the ballot law so as not to apply to candidates running for president or vice president. The measure died in the Democratic-run House. Paul's camp maintains that states don't have authority to restrict ballot access for federal elections. A Republican with considerable tea party support, Paul maintains that federal law governs federal elections." (Emphasis added.) ...

... CW: States' Rights Forever. Except when inconvenient.

News Ledes

Bloomberg News: "Employers added 217,000 jobs in May to push U.S. payrolls past their pre-recession peak and the jobless rate held at an almost six-year low as the economy gained traction. The advance was broad-based and followed a 282,000 gain in April, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington.... Unemployment in May was unchanged at 6.3 percent."

AP: "Police say a Seattle Pacific University student on Thursday disarmed a lone gunman who entered a building and shot four people. A hospital spokeswoman says one man has died and three other people are injured, one critically." ...

     ... An UPDATED AP story, naming the alleged gunman, is here.

AP: "A man suspected in the shooting deaths of three Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the wounding of two others in a rare case of gun violence in eastern Canada was arrested early Friday, police said."

AP: "An American tourist has been detained in North Korea for allegedly committing an unspecified crime, the country's official news agency reported Friday."

Comments

[Victoria D.]

The link to President Obama's speech at the D-Day memorial is much appreciated. I had the privilege of touring several sites at Normandy, including Utah and Omaha Beaches and the American Cemetary, just a week ago. It was a moving and sobering experience, to say the least. We owe the brave soldiers an enormous debt - both those who participated in the landing at Normandy and those, like my own father, who served elsewhere throughout the war.
On another note: Marie, you are evidently battling some obstacles to produce your wonderful site. I just want to say that I read RC faithfully while in Europe and was so grateful for your perspective and wealth of information. Thank you for what you do.

[PD Pepe]

Let's see a show of hands here: How many would love to have had Morning Joe as their father?

Here's another video from the Fox crew putting down Neil de Grasse Tyson, of all people.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/05/1304715/-Racist-Fox-News-guest-attacks-Neil-deGrasse-Tyson-because-he-fit-the-profile?detail=email

[Akhilleus]

Tim Egan's autopsy of the Tea Party movement (if you can call a collection of fearful, hateful begrudgers bankrolled by equally hateful billionaires a movement--bowel movement is more like it) may be a bit off the mark.

He, rightfully, points out that the 'baggers have no significant legislative accomplishments but that's not to say that they don't have much to show for their efforts to despoil the nation. In the past, fringe groups like the Teabaggers (think of that other Koch offspring conceived in fear and hatred, the Birchers) remained on the fringe. Even those politically aligned in tangential ways to those kinds of groups kept eyebrows permanently raised and legs at the ready to sidle away if contact was imminent with their wild-eyed second cousins.

There were two primary reasons for this.

First, these groups tended not to have the kind of massive funding that undergirds 'bagger nonsense. Second, they didn't have a 24/7 media arm ready to drop everything to cover their tiniest burst of flatulence as if it were a volcano eruption in downtown Wichita. It might be a chicken and egg situation, but one requires the other.

Even scheming oligarchs as ideologically deformed as the Kochs wouldn't invest the kind of dough they shovel at the Tea Party if it were going into a dry well. But as long as they have Fox, ClearChannel, 24/7 radio screamers and web sites dedicated to advocating every crackpot conservative idea, their money is well spent. Money supports crazies who get wall to wall coverage from other crazies and, subsequently--but most importantly--dutiful coverage from the so called mainstream press far greater and more respectful than their anti-American dementia deserves.

But the linchpin of all this is what has made the Tea Party a success by any stretch of the definition, the fact that this small group of miserable malcontents, largely because of the media coverage, has moved the entire country much further to the right than anyone could have predicted. The parlous effects of this movement have been felt from Main Street to the Supreme Court. Insanity is now accepted as a political norm. Right-wing Politicians, courting the fact-free ignorance of Planet Teabagger have learned, to their delight, that they can lie with impunity as long as they adhere to the puerile storylines born of 'bagger delusions.

Another malignant effect of Teabaggery is the unleashing of the most viperous, infantile wailings from the darkest part of the human id. Egan mentions that Tea Partiers are loathe to cooperate with any they see as the "enemy" (anyone who isn't on their side). But they also abhor any extension of common courtesy and decency (where is Joseph Welch when you need him?). Their corrosive presence has potholed every civic surface they slither across, making the kind of nasty, unconscionable attacks that used to be the source of ridicule, disdain, and aversion for average Americans, everyday occurrences, reported in the news as if they were business as usual.

They have diminished and demeaned public discourse and have reduced political debate to Molotov cocktail heaving.

Even so called progressive politicians have, consciously or not, moved to the right because of them. Look at President Obama's recent choices for the federal bench (Michael Boggs...seriously??).

The 'baggers may not have many legislative victories to pin on the wall of their whites-mostly clubhouse, but that doesn't mean they've failed. I'm pretty sure the Koch brothers have hoisted a few shots of old Stalin era vodka in celebration of the success of hatred, incivility, governmental dysfunction, and outright treason.

Typically, it's only the most substantial legislative achievements that transform the way we think and act. Mutating the zeitgeist--even for the worse--can have a similar effect and that, I believe, is what they have done.

[Akhilleus]

PD,

Father? I wouldn't even want this scumbag as a neighbor. Plus, my dad was a decent, smart, kind, gentle man so my image of "father" could never in any imaginable universe accommodate Joe freakin' Scarborough.

And does it surprise me that one of his guests is a white supremacist? A walking sac of bile? And does it further surprise me that this person would hate Tyson? Let's see...he's smart, he's a respected scientist, he's eloquent, he's got a successful television series, AND he's black.

What's not to hate?

These fucking people. Christ!

[NiskyGuy]

Regarding the GM ignition locks: The dead-tree edition of the Times had several CAD images of the lock and the keychain problem.

The fix that they have chosen, beefing up the detent plunger and spring, will probably do the job, but as the second drawing makes clear, when the key is in the "Run" position, a keychain wants to pull the key into a dead vertical position. The real solution is to have the key in the vertical position for "Run" and adjust the other settings accordingly.

Number one rule in all design: Gravity Works! Only Bugs Bunny gets out of that one.

[Akhilleus]

The apprehension of the gunman who shot and killed three RCMPs in New Brunswick, Canada, made me realize what an unusual event this was. A multiple shooting in Canada makes headline news in the international press.

Multiple shootings in the US don't even rate preemption of the drive-time traffic report.

But just so we're clear, the number of guns floating around the US has nothing whatsoever to do with that.

[Akhilleus]

Nisky Guy,

I'll send you all the money in my pockets if you can convince a single wingnut that gravity is real.

It's all a conspiracy.

And Bugs Bunny is in on it too. Lagomorphic legerdemain, that's what it is!

[MAG]

Just happened click on the URL link to the Michael Bechloss article CW linked sometime ago (see column on right) re: Truman's 'insufferable' mother-in-law and how Truman endured her snipes for years because of his love for Bess.

The last paragraph has a most telling anecdote that follows along with yesterday's dark humor

Bechloss: "...During the 1948 campaign — perhaps in some Freudian outburst after decades of containing himself — the president had smilingly told a crowd of Iowa farmers what he called “an old, old story” about “the fellow who was at the funeral of his wife.” He added: “And the undertaker had asked him if he would ride down to the cemetery in the same car with his mother-in-law. He said, ‘Well, I can do it, but it’s just going to spoil the whole day for me!'  ”

Speaking of insufferable, probably should add to my dictionary: Insufferable, synonym = Scarborough.